


A Hint of Rosemary

by Thalius



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Gen, One Shot, Pining, Recreational Drug Use, Slice of Life, Smoking, just weed though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 14:06:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21017009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thalius/pseuds/Thalius
Summary: Dina and Jesse debate potency. Ellie third-wheels from the comfort of an armchair. Joel tracks snow onto the carpet.Slice-of-life oneshot based off the trailers.





	A Hint of Rosemary

“What did I tell you about buying weed alone?” Dina waved the paper bag beneath Jesse’s nose. “Hm?”

“It’s fine! It’s fine,” he repeated, looking to Ellie for moral support. “Smell it.”

“Don’t, it’s powder.” Dina opened the bag and took a deep sniff despite her own advice. “There is literally rosemary in this. Come look at this!”

“It’s probably fine,” Ellie said, setting their drinks down and peering into the bag Dina held out with an indignant arm. 

“Look, she’s smiling. You bought a bag of rosemary for twenty dollars.”

Ellie glanced up at them. “No, I can smell Indica.”

“Oh,  _ Indica,”  _ Dina bemoaned, reclining on the couch as her feet fell into Jesse’s lap. “It’s herbs with weed flavouring.”

Jesse’s face continued to redden, but his eyes remained resolute. “Stop complaining and start rolling.” 

“We’ll only need ten to get high.”

Ellie went back into the kitchen to grab their food as they continued to bicker. Hopefully Dina was wrong about the weed. They usually argued a lot less when they were high. 

It  _ had _ looked and smelled a lot like ground rosemary, though. She grinned to herself again. Jesse was always too trusting.

She returned back into the living room with snacks and found that they’d only bothered to pack and roll one joint before Dina’s lighter found a way into the conversation. Since they were taking up the entire couch, Ellie went to the armchair and watched as Dina took the first exploratory puff.

She made a show of blowing the smoke out of her nose, suppressed a cough, and then looked to Jesse, unimpressed. “Trash,” she stated, passing him the roll.

“You’re lying,” he said as he took a puff for himself. Then he leaned over the arm of the couch to pass it to Ellie. 

She took it gingerly, watching the tip burn for a few seconds before putting her mouth to the other end. “At least it smells nice.”

“Hank will think we’re just burning incense this time.”

“He smokes weed in the house too!” Jesse exclaimed as Ellie passed it back to him. “He isn’t allowed to complain when we do it.”

“Good thing we’re not.” Dina took another pull, still reclined, still unmoved by the joint rolling between her fingers.

“I dunno,” Ellie said, settling into her seat. “I think I feel something.”

“Pla-ce-bo,” Dina said slowly. “And don’t be a traitor. You’re on my side.”

Ellie pointed a finger in her direction without looking. “I’m on the side of truth. And you sound high already anyway.”

Dina dismissed her concerns with a wave. 

They continued to pass the joint around until all three of them decided there was definitely more than just rosemary in Jesse’s mystery herbal powder. That sadly didn’t seem to stop the bickering, though.

Ellie was too far away to reach the bowl of nuts and didn’t want to stand up to get some, so she stuck with her water while Dina and Jesse devoured enough almonds for five people.

Having given up the fight over whether or not they were getting high, Dina was now lying across the couch with an arm covering her eyes, her free hand occasionally dropping almonds into her mouth. “Ugh. I have to audit patrol logs starting next week.”

“So you’ve said,” Jesse replied. Dina raised a foot and brought it down on his knee.

“You bitch endlessly when it’s your turn.” She reached blindly for more almonds. “Monroe said they need the entire past three weeks done.”

“Who's helping you?” Ellie asked, eyeing the bowl of nuts enviously. She really didn’t want to get up.

“Taylor and Jun I think. And Manpreet.”

“Oh. I’ve never done bookkeeping with them before.”

“I’ve done it with Taylor,” Jesse said. “He sucks ass at it.”

Dina chewed her mouthful of almonds thoughtfully. “Numbers do get pretty hard after ten.”

There was a knock at the door that interrupted their conversation—two thuds that sounded like they were being made by the soft side of a fist. There’d been no footsteps preceding it, but the sound of it was more than enough to tell her who it was. 

Which also meant she would apparently have to get up. Ellie sighed and shoved out of her armchair as Dina sat up on an elbow. 

“Why does he always knock like that?”

“Old man syndrome,” Ellie replied, then unhooked the latches and opened the door. Joel stood on the other side, his head covered in a thick hat and a cloth-wrapped package under one arm. He cheeks were a wind-beaten red, like he’d been outside all day.

“Hey,” she greeted him, making room for him to step onto the carpet and stomp his boots. “Didn’t know you were stopping by.”

He glanced at Dina and Jesse without bothering to say hello to either of them, then frowned.

“You burnin’ something?”

“Incense,” Ellie explained. Joel looked at the unused rolling papers next to the ashtray with skepticism.

“Right.” He cleared his throat and unslung the package from under his arm. “Brought this for you.”

She knew what it was before she even grabbed it from him. She guessed there were maybe five or six issues inside the cloth wrapping. “Thanks.”

“It’s uh—” He cleared his throat again, obviously not wanting to have this conversation in front of other people. “Some of the earlier prints. The ones that have copier problems on them, or whatever you call’em.”

“Oh.” She looked down at the package, now genuinely interested. “Just a sec, guys,” she said to Jesse and Dina, then gestured for Joel to follow her into the kitchen. He gladly ducked behind her. 

They sat down at the table and she unwrapped his gift. Sure enough, two issues of  _ Astronautical _ and three of  _ Savage Starlight _ were inside. She fanned them out on the table, taking in the cover art. All of the titles were familiar, but two had covers she hadn’t seen before.

“Those ones,” Joel said, pointing to the two. “They’re older editions. One of ‘em’s a first, I think. Ink’s pretty smudged though.”

Ellie opened up the  _ Astronautical _ one and flipped through it. It had sustained heavy water damage, but on the clearer pages she could see some of the errors. Incorrect starlog dates, misspelled words, inconsistent kernings. Errors no one was around to correct anymore, enshrined forever in this comic. 

She looked up with a grin, and Joel’s eyes brightened. “Thank you,” she whispered. “These are great.”

“Ah well,” he said, leaning back in the chair and pretending very badly that it wasn’t a big deal. “Found ‘em around, you know. Macy’s got us lookin’ for books in the mall again.”

“I’ll have a look through them later.” She stacked them back up into a neat pile, then paused. He looked cold, but she also knew he’d take the chance to linger if she gave it to him. Whatever unpleasant conversation he’d wanted to soften with this gift was one she didn’t want to have while high or with two other people in the house. “You all done for the night?”

“Yeah, patrols all come in now. Told Sandra I’d help her with the east wall, but—” He paused to yawn. “Maybe that’ll be for tomorrow.”

“You look tired.” Ellie stood up, leaving the comics on the table. “Go get some rest. We can….” She sighed, seeing him perk up. “We can talk later.”

“Right, yeah.” He stood up alongside her, then looked over at the doorway leading back to the living room. “Be careful with all that stuff—”

“We won’t start a fire, don’t worry.” She reached over and squeezed his arm through his thick jacket sleeve, and his expression softened. “Go sleep.”

“I will.” He touched his hat and nodded to her. “Night, kiddo.”

“Night, Joel.”

She lingered in the kitchen, listening to him leave. He repeated his admonishment to Jesse and Dina about being careful, though he was a lot less gentle about it, and then disappeared into the street with a soft click of the door. She smiled to herself as she folded up the wrapping paper and tucked it into a drawer before going back to the comics. 

She’d have to go through each of them, cataloguing any damage. Joel had brought her at least twelve copies of Book Nine of  _ Starlight Savage  _ by now, but maybe this one would be in better condition. At least this would give her an excuse to stay in on her day off. 

Ellie was still looking down at the comics when Dina came in with the empty nut bowl. She tossed it onto the counter when she saw what was on the table and came up beside Ellie. 

She smelled like almonds. And rosemary. 

“More comics?” Dina asked, grabbing the one off the top of the pile and flipping through the pages. “Don’t you have these already?”

“Mostly,” Ellie replied. 

Dina looked up at the resigned tone of her voice, frowning. “He say something to you?”

“No, no. I just know what these are.” She gestured to the pile of comics. “A premature apology.”

“Ah.” Dina set down the comic. “You could probably sell these, you know. All the kids in town already know you’re the comic book lady.”

Ellie  _ psshed _ at her. “I’m not the... comic book lady,” she protested, then went to the counter to grab the bowl. “And I’m not gonna be a dick.”

“He’s being a dick! Bribing you with comics.”

Ellie grabbed the bag of remaining almonds—they’d have to pay Hank back for eating them all—and dumped them into the bowl. “I don’t even know what he wants to talk about yet. It might be something dumb.”

“Oh, I’m sure it is.” Dina reached beneath Ellie’s arm and grabbed an almond from the bowl. She was really warm. “He’s a grumpy old man. They complain about dumb things. It’s what they do.”

“Well, guess I’ll find out tomorrow.” She turned around, leaning on the counter so she had something to grip, and looked at Dina. Her cheeks were rosy too, and not from the cold. “That was good weed, by the way.”

“Shh. Can’t let Jesse know.”

“He already does! He smoked most of the joint.”

Dina made a face, then leaned in and grabbed another almond from behind Ellie. “Jury’s still out for me,” she said. She hadn’t backed up this time.

Ellie shrugged. “Makes you smell good at least.”

“Makes you smell good too,” Dina whispered.

“What are you guys doing in there?” Jesse called. “I thought we were gonna play cards.”

“We are,” Dina called back, then grabbed the bowl. She grinned at Ellie, and there was a tiny fleck of an almond shell stuck to one of her teeth. “Come on, comic book lady. Forget about Joel. I told Jesse we were gonna destroy him at poker.” 

The bun of Dina’s hair had loosened when she’d laid down on the couch. Dark, thick strands now framed around her face, though she either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Ellie forced herself to stop staring, realising she had to reply. “I don’t know how to play.”

Dina winked at her. “I’ll teach you.”


End file.
